1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a content processing apparatus and a content processing method, and more particularly to a content processing apparatus for processing high resolution content and a content processing method, which can process an interesting region of the high resolution content in consideration of an output resolution while processing the high resolution content.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of electronic technology, various types of display devices have been developed and are now commonly used. For example, a representative display device is a TV.
Recently, as the performance of TVs has become better, high-quality content, such as 3D content or high resolution content, can be displayed on the TVs. As a representative example, with the development of TV technology, UHD (Ultra High Definition) content can now be displayed through a TV.
The UHD content is content having higher definition than full HD content. UHD corresponds to the number of pixels in length and width, which reaches a 4000 (3840×2160) to 8000 (7680×4320) class. Since screen resolution is affected by the number of pixels, 4 k UHD is four times clearer than HD (1920×1080). Further, 8 k UHD is 16 times clearer than HD (1920×1080). The frame rate, that is, the number of frames per second, of HD is 30 Hz, whereas the frame rate of UHD is 60 Hz, which corresponds to the transmission of 60 image frames per second. Accordingly, a much more natural and dynamic screen image can be provided.
Since high resolution content, such as UHD content, has a large number of pixels, the high resolution content should be displayed on a display device having a larger screen. Further, in order for a user to experience the feeling of viewing realistic images through the screen, the image of the screen should come into view as wide as possible. That is, the whole screen should be in the range of a user's viewing angle. Current HD TVs provide a viewing angle of about 30 degrees, and in the case of a UHD TV, a wider viewing angle should be provided.
Although image content manufacturing technology has been developed as described above, a larger number of HD display devices than UHD display devices have actually been used by consumers. In order to display high resolution content, such as UHD content, on a low resolution display device, a video frame should be down-scaled.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate display states where UHD content is displayed on different display devices. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, if the UHD content is displayed on a UHD display device 10, a wide viewing angle (55 degrees) is ensured. By contrast, as illustrated in FIG. 1B, if the UHD content is displayed on an HD display device 20, the viewing angle is narrowed in comparison to the viewing angle of FIG. 1A, and more specifically, is narrowed to approximately 30 degrees.
In order to display the UHD content on the HD display device 20, scaling should be performed so as to make the size of a video frame of the UHD content match the display size of the HD display device 20. Since the UHD image frame is at least 4 times larger than the HD image frame, the down scaling is performed at a scaling rate that is equal to or less than ¼. However, the UHD image is content that is made suitable to view the UHD image with a wide viewing angle, and if the UHD image is excessively reduced, the portion of the UHD image which can be viewed by the user becomes too small. In the case where a person 11 is included in the scene as shown in FIG. 1B, the size of the person 11 is excessively reduced when the image of the person 11 is displayed on the HD display device 20. Accordingly, a user's natural viewing of the content may be disturbed.